A modelled carbon account for Australia's post-1990 plantation estate

A generalised hybrid process-empirical model for predicting plantation forest growth

“…A significant amount of data on climate (rainfall, temperature, frost, pan evaporation), broad soil types, water holding capacity and fertility and forest productivity was already available from the native forest model. Broad-scale regionalised volume increments for different plantation species were also available from the National Plantation Inventory and existing nonspatially explicit models of plantation growth (Richards and Brack, 2004a). Enhancing the FullCAM system to allow its application in plantation systems required: a method for calibrating the generalised growth model used by FullCAM for use in plantations; the ability to include the effects of management on growth at any point in a rotation; a knowledge of past management practices and their effects on growth; understanding of the pattern of development of Australia's plantation estate.…”

“…Purely empirical modelling methods using yield or increment tables (Richards and Brack, 2004a;Lewis et al, 1976;Turner and James, 2002) does not reflect short-term climate variability. The inclusion of climatic drivers through the use of process driven models increases the accuracy of accounting at a fine temporal scale by reflecting actual variability in forest productivity and carbon accounts.…”

“…The growth and yield of forests over short periods is sensitive to climate variability and management inputs (Richards and Brack, 2004a). Purely empirical modelling methods using yield or increment tables (Richards and Brack, 2004a;Lewis et al, 1976;Turner and James, 2002) does not reflect short-term climate variability.…”

“…FullCAM integrates fine spatial and temporal scale land-use change information (from remote sensing) with detailed climatic, site, species and management information to provide bottom-up continental estimates of greenhouse gas emissions and removals over time. The spatiotemporal capabilities of FullCAM have been used to estimate emissions and removals through deforestation and resultant agricultural systems (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2005) but have not been used to estimate emissions and removals in Australia's plantation estate, which has been modelled using broad regional scale models (Richards and Brack, 2004a).…”

Fertiliser and irrigation effects on wood density at various heights for Pinus radiata

“…However, calculations of carbon stocks typically exclude variations in wood density with site and age because it is difficult to measure and model. For example, Richards and Brack (2004) applied a basic density of 440 kg m -3 for all P. radiata plantations in Australia. Although this is reasonable at a continental scale, using the average density may introduce regional biases.…”